What is OpenCompany?
OpenCompany is a self-hostable runtime that stands up a business as a roster of agents: a marketing agency, a law firm, a software company or one of 22 bundled templates, each declared in a plain-text company.toml naming the roles, what each owns, which desks they sit at and which decisions need a human sign-off. A web console at localhost:5173 shows the agents working and anything waiting on you.
Desks with two or more agents run as a room rather than a fan-out: agents post to the desk or message one colleague through tool calls, run concurrently, and an episode ends when the assigned members say their part is done or a round cap is hit. Unaddressed messages are routed by Jev, TypeSafe's routing model, and orchestration runs on TinyHumans' Medulla model through a hosted proxy. Every turn is journalled.
It is written in Rust, licensed GPL-3.0 and maintained by TinyHumans, with a macOS desktop app, Docker and from-source options. It is marked work in progress and not production-ready.
Is OpenCompany worth it?
OpenCompany is more careful than most "AI company" projects about how agents talk. Instead of waking every agent and averaging the replies, a desk runs as a room with a record of who spoke to whom, a defined end to each episode and a cap on rounds, so one operator message costs a bounded number of turns. The company.toml format is readable by non-programmers, and opencompany check reports configuration problems in plain language.
The dependency is the catch. Without a TinyHumans key you can launch a company and look around, but the agents do no real work, because orchestration runs on TinyHumans' hosted Medulla model. The key is sold as credits, one credit per dollar: Basic is $20 a month with $21 of credit and one company of up to three users, Pro $200 a month with $210 and five companies, and unused credit is not refundable. You can route model calls through your own Claude Code, Codex or OpenRouter accounts, but the orchestrator is still TinyHumans'. The site's claim that teams consulting each other scored 77.5% against 0.2% for agents working alone comes with no published method on the page.
The project is active but unsettled. v0.3.0 on 29 September bundled 82 pull requests across 1,229 commits from 16 contributors; the repository has 324 stars, 97 open issues, and its last commit on main was on 9 October. The README warns that APIs, the CLI and docs will change without notice. Telemetry is handled well: a self-hosted build cannot send any, because the network client is not compiled in, while the desktop app reports anonymous usage by default with a switch to turn it off.
Our reading is that it suits tinkerers who want to study a deliberative multi-agent design and do not mind a vendor-hosted orchestrator. Several unrelated GitHub projects share the OpenCompany name; this review covers tinyhumansai/opencompany.
Where it earns its place
A solo founder of a newsletter business
Run research, writing and distribution as separate agents I can supervise
Launch the Media Company template with ./scripts/launch-demo.sh and a TinyHumans key; Basic at $20 a month gives $21 of credit, and the console shows each desk's discussion and waits for your editorial sign-off.
An AI engineer evaluating multi-agent frameworks
Compare a deliberative desk against a simple fan-out on the same task
Run scripts/measure-coordination.sh on the two-desk example and read docs/spec/runtime/hive.md for the mechanism; set the desk's round cap in company.toml to bound spend.
A small consultancy's operations lead
Prototype an agent team for client research and slide drafts
Edit the Consulting Firm template's company.toml to rename roles and mark which deliverables need approval, then run it in Docker; check credit use against Pro at $200 a month if more than three people need access.
Before you commit
- Setup
- git clone --recurse-submodules, export TINYHUMANS_API_KEY, then ./scripts/launch-demo.sh marketing up with Docker or Podman; about 15 minutes, per the README. On Windows it needs WSL or Git Bash. A macOS .dmg is also offered.
- Integrations
- OpenHuman agent runtime and tinyhivemind; Jev for routing; Claude Code, Codex and OpenRouter as model providers; email, calendars, code and CRMs through your own accounts.
- Data and privacy
- GPL-3.0 and self-hostable. Self-hosted builds send no telemetry; the desktop app sends anonymous usage events unless OPENCOMPANY_ANALYTICS=off; no company content is reported on any install, per the README.
- Cost at scale
- Pro is $200 a month for $210 of credits and five companies; heavier use buys more credits at the same per-call rates; Enterprise adds self-hosting of the platform and SSO at a custom price.
- Limits
- Not production-ready by its own label; whoever opens a fresh host first becomes admin; 97 open issues; the name is shared with several unrelated repositories.
What’s good
- Desks deliberate as a room with a bounded number of turns
- 22 company templates in readable company.toml files
- Self-hosted builds compile out telemetry entirely
- Every turn journalled and replayable in the console
- Human sign-off points declared per company
What’s not
- Agents do no real work without a paid TinyHumans key
- Orchestration depends on TinyHumans' hosted Medulla model
- Work in progress; APIs change without notice
- Desktop app only for macOS
- No commits on main since 9 October
Best for
Developers and solo founders curious about deliberating agent teams who are happy to pay TinyHumans for orchestration while they experiment.
OpenCompany alternatives
OpenCompany: common questions
- Is OpenCompany worth it?
- OpenCompany has one of the more thought-through designs for agents that work as a team, but it is a self-declared work in progress that leans on its maker's paid key to do anything useful. We rate it 3.3 out of 5.
- How much does OpenCompany cost?
- Software free under GPL-3.0, but agents need a TinyHumans API key to do real work. TinyHumans Basic $20/month ($21 credits, 1 company, 3 users); Pro $200/month ($210 credits, 5 companies); pay-as-you-go credits from $5; Enterprise custom. Your own Claude Code, Codex or OpenRouter accounts can be used, billed by them.
- What are the downsides of OpenCompany?
- Agents do no real work without a paid TinyHumans key; orchestration depends on TinyHumans' hosted Medulla model; work in progress; APIs change without notice; desktop app only for macOS; no commits on main since 9 October.
- Who is OpenCompany best for?
- Developers and solo founders curious about deliberating agent teams who are happy to pay TinyHumans for orchestration while they experiment.
- How much does OpenCompany cost for a team or in production?
- Pro is $200 a month for $210 of credits and five companies; heavier use buys more credits at the same per-call rates; Enterprise adds self-hosting of the platform and SSO at a custom price.
- Is OpenCompany safe for company data?
- GPL-3.0 and self-hostable. Self-hosted builds send no telemetry; the desktop app sends anonymous usage events unless OPENCOMPANY_ANALYTICS=off; no company content is reported on any install, per the README.
- What are the best OpenCompany alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are CrewAI, Open Multi-Agent (OMA), OpenClaw and MiroFish.
Answers checked Nov 3, 2026.